That total is 78% higher than the typical homeowner expects to spend ($10,094), leading 88% of homeowners to say the true cost of owning a home is more expensive than they expected.
St. Louis, MO – March 27, 2024 (PRNewswire) In addition to their mortgage, the average homeowner spends $17,958 each year on expenses, including maintenance, improvements, utilities, property taxes, and insurance, according to new research from Real Estate Witch, an online publication owned by Clever Real Estate that connects readers with expert real estate advice.
Annually, the average homeowner spends:
What is the true cost of homeownership in 2024?Which costs of homeownership have been more expensive than you originally expected?
$4,392 on maintenance and repairs
$3,784 on renovations and improvements
$5,362 on utilities
$2,904 on property taxes
$1,516 on homeowners insurance
Over a 30-year mortgage, this translates to a staggering $538,740 in additional expenses beyond the mortgage — enough to buy a second house.
Even more, almost one-quarter of homeowners (23%) spend over 30% of their income on home expenses on top of their mortgage payments.
Unsurprisingly, 88% say the true cost of owning a home is more expensive than they expected, and 67% have regrets about their home purchase. In fact, 26% of homeowners think they overpaid for their home, including 46% of 2023 and 2024 buyers, who faced both high home prices and high interest rates.
More than 1 in 3 homeowners (36%) say their home has negatively affected their finances, and nearly 1 in 4 (23%) say it’s negatively impacted their mental health.
On average, homeowners spend a daunting 588 hours each year working on home upkeep and improvements — about 11.3 hours weekly, or 24.5 days a year. That means every 15 years, the typical homeowner loses a year of their life (365 days) to home upkeep and improvements.
1 in 5 homeowners (19%) struggle to afford maintenance so much that they cannot afford a $500 emergency repair without going into credit card debt.
In the face of escalating expenses, more than 1 in 4 homeowners (28%) say they’ve considered going back to renting, and 20% have resorted to taking on more debt to afford the expense of homeownership.
Real Estate Witch is a web property of Clever Real Estate, an online platform that connects home buyers and sellers with top-rated agents at a discounted rate.
Please contact Alyssa Evans at 315-690-1518 or 375227@email4pr.com to be connected with a researcher for any questions or for an interview.
Redfin reports there are more homes for buyers to choose from, with new listings posting their biggest uptick in nearly three years
Seattle, WA – March 28, 2024 (BUSINESS WIRE) (NASDAQ: RDFN) The typical U.S. monthly housing payment hit an all-time high of $2,721 during the four weeks ending March 24, up 10% from a year earlier, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.
Housing payments are at a record high because of the one-two punch of elevated mortgage rates and rising home prices. Mortgage rates remain elevated near 7%, and the median home-sale price is up 5% year over year to roughly $375,000, just about $9,000 shy of June 2023’s record high.
Many sellers are trying to take advantage of rising prices by listing their home. New listings are up 15%, the biggest increase in nearly three years, and the total number of homes for sale is up 6%, the biggest increase in nearly one year.
Increased supply is bringing back some demand, which is the main reason price growth remains robust. Mortgage-purchase applications are up 14% from a month ago, and pending home sales are just 1% lower than they were a year ago, the smallest decline since the beginning of the year.
“High mortgage rates aren’t deterring buyers as much as they were last year; a lot of people want to get in now before prices go up more,” said Miami Redfin agent Rachel Riva. “All of my recent listings have gone under contract in under 10 days, and most of them have received multiple offers. Buyers are lessening the impact of elevated rates in a few ways: Some are making high down payments to lower their monthly payments, and some are willing to take on a high rate now in hopes of refinancing when and if rates come down.”
There are a few signs that price growth could soften a bit in the coming months. Nearly 6% of home sellers dropped their asking price this week, on average, the highest share of any March on record. Months of supply hit its highest level of any March since 2020–when the onset of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt–indicating that the market is becoming more balanced.
Essentially unchanged from a week earlier; up 14% from a month earlier (as of week ending March 22)
Down 16%
Mortgage Bankers Association
Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index (seasonally adjusted)
Up 2% from a month earlier (as of week ending March 24)
Down 8%
Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index, a measure of requests for tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents
Google searches for “home for sale”
Up 6% from a month earlier (as of March 25)
Down 5%
Google Trends
Touring activity
Up 28% from the start of the year (as of March 25)
At this time last year, it was up 21% from the start of 2023
ShowingTime, a home touring technology company
Key housing-market data
U.S. highlights: Four weeks ending March 24, 2024Redfin’s national metrics include data from 400+ U.S. metro areas, and is based on homes listed and/or sold during the period. Weekly housing-market data goes back through 2015. Subject to revision.
Four weeks ending March 24, 2024
Year-over-year change
Notes
Median sale price
$374,500
4.6%
Median asking price
$405,451
5.1%
Median monthly mortgage payment
$2,721 at a 6.87% mortgage rate
9.8%
Record high
Pending sales
85,048
-1.1%
Smallest decline in over 2 months
New listings
92,087
14.8%
Biggest increase since June 2021
Active listings
807,227
6.3%
Biggest increase since May 2023
Months of supply
3.3 months
+0.4 pts.
4 to 5 months of supply is considered balanced, with a lower number indicating seller’s market conditions
Share of homes off market in two weeks
42.3%
Essentially unchanged
Median days on market
40
-2 days
Share of homes sold above list price
26.8%
Up from 26%
Share of homes with a price drop
5.8%
+1.6 pts.
Average sale-to-list price ratio
98.8%
+0.2 pts.
Metro-level highlights: Four weeks ending March 24, 2024Redfin’s metro-level data includes the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Select metros may be excluded from time to time to ensure data accuracy.
Metros with biggest year-over-year increases
Metros with biggest year-over-year decreases
Notes
Median sale price
West Palm Beach, FL (20.7%)San Jose, CA (17.6%)Miami (16.1%)Detroit (15%)New Brunswick, NJ (14.5%)
San Antonio, TX (-0.3%)
Declined in just 1 metro
Pending sales
San Jose, CA (25.1%)San Francisco (20.1%)Cincinnati (11.6%)Anaheim, CA (9.9%)Seattle (8.2%)
Atlanta (-15.4%)Houston (-13%)San Antonio, TX (-12.7%)West Palm Beach, FL (-12.5%)Miami (-10.7%)
Increased in roughly half of the metros
New listings
San Jose, CA (41.8%)Sacramento, CA (38%)Phoenix (31.7%)Las Vegas (27.3%)Austin, TX (26%)
Atlanta (-6.6%)Chicago (-2.9%)
Declined in just 2 metros
To view the full report, including charts, please visit:
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We run the country’s #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can have our renovations crew fix it up to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we’ve saved customers more than $1.6 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.
Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.
For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin’s press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin’s press center, click here.
